31 Weeks

Your baby now weighs about 3.3 pounds and measures about 17 inches. Growth will begin to slow down now, but the average weight of babies at birth is around 7 pounds.

Baby is opening and closing their eyes this week. A brain scan would show that your baby is probably having dreams now. Lungs are quickly developing now, getting ready for full time work after birth. White fat is now being deposited beneath the skin, which helps make baby’s skin look pink.

By now you should be seeing your health practitioner every two weeks. Your doctor or midwife will be checking your blood pressure and any swelling in your arms and legs, measuring the baby, asking you about how the baby is moving around and keeping close tabs on you and the baby in general. They’ll start paying attention to what position the baby is in now, as the birth gets closer. About 96% of babies born are born head first. The rest are born breech with the buttocks or feet coming first. Having a breech birth does not mean an automatic cesarean section, but be sure and talk with your doctor or midwife if you are concerned. It’s probably time for you to remove your rings, if you have not already done so, because with swelling it can become very hard to remove these later.

I am feeling a lot more Third Trimestery now. Part of it is probably all the fun we're having- it's awesome but also takes a lot of energy. I'm not sleeping really well, and rolling over is becoming more work. Today we did some driving, and sitting in the car might have something to do with it, but my hips don't feel as comfortable as they have been. I'm slowing down.

I got three new maternity tops! I love them, in good part because they reach my pants with room to spare.

Funny that this week's information says that I should be seeing my care provider every two weeks now, because I'm taking this six week hiatus. I'll go see him the week I get back.

I don't know whether this baby is head up or down, but it seems to be in a vertical position as I feel movements at about 11'o'clock (if you're looking at me) and 6'o'clock. I think baby has the hiccups right now. I feel them at about 5'o'clock so hopefully that means baby is head down.

So far I haven't noticed any swelling. I wouldn't be surprised if I gain some weight while I'm here though because I've been indulging in treats more than usual. My belly is gigantic, seriously. The other day someone told me I'll never make it to September. I told him I plan to!! Or at least get closer than July ;)

I got my book yesterday! I'm starting to read about the Anti-D vaccine, which is meant to protect future pregnancies in the case that this baby is Rh+ and his or her blood somehow gets into my bloodstream. Once I've read it I'll post my comments.

30 Weeks

Your baby now weighs about 3 pounds and measures 16.2 inches. Things are started to get cramped inside the uterus at this point, and the baby is really in the fetal position – with knees bent and their chin touching the chest. Soon baby will move into the head down position getting ready for their delivery.

Babies do not usually have 20/20 vision when they are born. Their eyes are well developed and they are reacting to light, but most children do not have 20/20 vision until they are between seven and nine years old.

The brain is continuing to grow and make connections between nerve cells. Baby’s digestive tract is nearly complete now and the lungs are nearly fully developed as well. Lanugo continues to disappear now and the hair on their little heads is coming in. Some babies are born with a full head of hair!

Sleeping on your left side is probably the most comfortable position for you now, as it will help remove some of the pressure on the nerves and blood vessels in your back. It may seem as if everyone has a horror story to tell you now about her labor and birth. Just remember that every birth is different and don’t feel shy about asking people to keep the stories to themselves if they bother you. You might also find that complete strangers feel the need to touch your belly – everyone gets excited as the birth of your little one grows closer.

Into the 30's!! About ten weeks to go. Sounds near, until you consider that's still two and a half months.

Things are still great. My main complaint is clothing-related. I only have about 4 tops that actually fit so there is always laundry to be done. My body feels great and I have good energy. Baby still moves around a lot. The other day when I was holding newborn Seylah WOW did baby move a lot. Maybe my body released a hormone that got the baby going. It was something else.

I am pretty sure baby is head up and facing forward, and sometimes diagonal. I know there's still lots of time for him or her to turn so I'm not thinking too much about it. Though it is always comforting once baby settles into a nice head down position.

After my last chiropractic appointment last week I felt like my hips straightened out so hopefully I can stay loose and in alignment through to the end of my pregnancy. I also had one last massage and there were fewer tender spots so to me that confirmed that my body has responded well to the treatments.

My Visit with Abigail (midwife for Eva's birth)

I had a great visit with Abigail. She was so open and easy to talk to and she filled in most of the blanks I had about Eva's birth, and about childbirth in general.

She was running a little late so she gave me my chart to flip through, which was fun and interesting, and it gave me some time to make notes.

Here are some details of our discussion:

When my water broke during my labour with Eva, it was bright red with a tinge of green. I would have thought that would be alarming since bleeding can indicate placental abruption. So I was curious to know whether she was alarmed, since I didn't sense any concern about it. She explained that assuming the bleeding doesn't continue (and it didn't in my case) and especially if it's not accompanied by non-labour-related pain (which mine wasn't), it would be considered 'bloody show' and quite normal. The green was meconium (Eva poop) but it was thin and not a big problem. Probably by the time I got to the hospital and saw her my waters were clear or just tinged with thin mec and so there was no need for alarm.

I arrived at the hospital at 9am at 5cms, and by 4pm I was 6-7cms and my contractions were spacing out. She consulted with the OB on call and they started a pitocin drip. She said the hospital standards are to set up 5mu in a 500mL IV and set the drip at 1mu. Twenty to thirty minutes later if no change had been noted the drip would have been upped to 3mu, and so on. My records weren't clear about exactly how much I was given, but as I recall it didn't take much before things really got moving. The doctor's notes were that fetal heart tones were normal, reactive with variations, it was an average sized baby, my pelvis was adequate, baby was vertex occiput anterior, head not moulded and no caput (scalp swelling). His assessment was uterine dystocia and he recommended augmentation and analgesia as necessary. In retrospect Abigail still felt like it was absolutely the right call.

Eva was born 4 hours later. I pushed for 20 minutes. The placenta was came along spontaneously 8 minutes after Eva did. Abigail gave me 5mu pitocin 1 minute after that. She gave me the pit because I had been given pit during labour. Blood loss was within the normal range. Eva had apgar scores of 8 and 9 (or possibly 9 and 9). She weighed 3621g/8lbs. I had a second degree tear. Eva received an IM shot of vitamin K. Micah was born after 9 minutes of pushing. Sari gave me 5mu pitocin 1 minute after he was born. The placenta was born 3 minutes after that. She gave me the pitocin because she prefers to be proactive vs reactive. Blood loss was in the normal range. Micah had apgar scores of 9 and 9. He weighed 4089g/9lbs. I had a small labial tear. I recall Sari saying that it wouldn't have needed any stitches except that it was bleeding. Micah received an IM shot of 5mu of vitamin K.

I asked about using doppler to monitor fetal heart tones and she felt like it is the best way to go during labour. She said it's hard to hear with a fetoscope and really listen for variations while mom is labouring. She felt like intermittent auscultation monitoring about every 15-20 minutes gives a good feel for how baby is doing. I learned that not only is it concerning if baby's heart rate decreases dramatically, but also if heart rate is not variable. A flat heart rate could indicate that baby is conserving energy because of distress.

I mentioned that my blood loss with both kids was in the normal range (<500mL). Risk factors for post partum hemmorhage are: previous PPH, prolonged rupture of membranes, fast labour, large baby. I am planning to decline postpartum pitocin injection with this birth- as long as there is no substantial blood loss- and I asked Abigail her opinion of that. She thought that considering how quickly the placenta came along after my babies and that my previous blood loss was in the normal range, it would probably be fine to decline.

I asked about being GBS positive. She brought up something I hadn't considered. In her opinion it's harder on the baby to receive antibiotics as a newborn than it would be to receive them via the placenta while in utero. Ok, now I'm praying even harder that I'm GBS negative.

I asked about the WinRho/Rhogam shot as it relates to delayed cord clamping and she said that many birth attendants prefer to clamp on the early side with an Rh- mother because they want to make sure they can get a good enough size and quality sample of cord blood to send to the lab. Abigail said that she has experience in finding/using just the right vessel to access in the placenta so that even with delayed clamping she doesn't have a problem getting a good sample. Interesting. Also if this next baby's placenta comes along as quickly after baby there should be no problem getting a good quality blood sample. She didn't see any risk to the baby or to me related to delaying the cord clamp. As far as declining the prenatal WinRho/Rhogam shot, she wasn't too enthusiastic about passing it by. I look forward to reading the book I ordered so I can make the best informed decision about this. I hope I get it before we leave to go home to Mexico, because already my 28 week shot is pushed out to at least 33 weeks which is when I get back.

The other thing we discussed was vitamin K. Hemorrhagic disease of the newborn comes on quickly and can in rare cases cause severe brain damage. In fact, one of her colleagues has a baby who ended up nearly brain dead as a result of this disease. I had read that there had been a study linking vitamin K administration to childhood leukemia, and she said that there were a number of studies done after that one. None of them were able to reproduce the results and therefore that study is now considered invalid. I just did a Google search and found a recently released joint position statement of the Fetus and Newborn Committee, Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS), and the Committee on Child and Adolescent Health, College of Family Physicians of Canada. It mentions that the study linking vit k to cancer had been discredited, and strongly recommends an IM shot within the first 6 hours of life.

I was leaning away from giving this shot but now I'm leaning back toward it. It really bothers me that the routine administration of this shot kind of assumes that God forgot to take care of something somewhere along the way. Seems to me he would have made sure that baby has exactly what it needs when it's born. But maybe it's not about the baby missing something by design, maybe it has something to do with the food or air or water that we mothers are exposed to or choose to ingest which causes there to be a deficiency or imbalance. That wouldn't be so surprising.

I asked how she felt about the idea of not doing any cervical checks during labour. It was not a big deal to her. I think many or most mothers like to hear about their progress. She does often like to check right before pushing to make sure there's not a cervical lip. I saw first hand at Tara's birth that a birth can go very smoothly without a check at prior to pushing. She thought that a check would also give the birth attendant time to prepare him or herself for the imminent birth. Again, with Tara, it was pretty clear that birth was imminent. But of course that's only one birth. My plan is to hold off pushing until my body absolutely won't take no for an answer, and I plan to catch the baby myself (or perhaps Andrew will!) so I think that declining exams during our upcoming birth is a fairly reasonable request. Again assuming things move along smoothly.

We talked about Micah's birth a little and she described it as a "textbook 2nd birth". She said in many cases the third is very much like the second, though it does happen that it is much harder than the first. I had heard anecdotes about the third birth being kind of a wild card so while I am hoping and planning for a beautifully smooth birth I recognize that things don't always go as we hope and plan and I accept that. I am grateful to have expertise and resources available should they be needed.

See my comment on the previous post for followup thoughts about my big bump.

29 Weeks

This week your baby weighs in at 2.6 pounds and measures at about 16 inches. To help with the discomforts of pregnancy that you may be having at this time you should get plenty of rest, wear comfortable, supportive shoes and continue to eat a healthy balanced diet. If you haven’t started working on your birth plan, now is the time to get started! Be sure to get your partner’s input on this important document that will help guide everyone during your labor and birth.

Baby’s head is no longer disproportionate to the rest of the body. The senses are functioning and the eyes can move around inside the eye sockets. Little boy’s testicles are now moving toward their scrotum and little girls will have a prominent clitoris because it is not yet covered by the small labia, as this happens in the last few weeks of pregnancy.

Baby’s skin is becoming less wrinkly as they continue to add fat and gain weight. The uterus is becoming more cramped now and the kicks and punches that you have felt will probably feel less pronounced at this point. You’ll definitely still be able to tell that baby is there, though!

All is well. I have a cold and that is very annoying, but pregnancy-wise I still feel really great. No complaints at all. I have been going for chiropractic adjustments and he has noticed that my right hip is a little bit forward so that is what he has been working on. I think it's probably because of my somewhat heavy and low hanging purse so I've been shopping for a short handled purse which I think will be more comfortable. Yesterday I went shopping for walking shoes (couldn't make a decision) but I still wear my flip-flops daily, and very comfortably.

Everywhere I go people say I must be due really soon. I just smile and answer "not as soon as you think!" Mostly I feel pretty comfortable with it, but I do have a small worry that there might be something undesirable going on to cause me to be so big. I'm meeting with our midwife from Eva's birth today so hopefully she wouldn't mind logging an opinion. I saw our midwife from Micah's birth yesterday and she was kind of rushed so I didn't get her opinion on that. She did say a number of times how good I looked which made me feel happy.

Baby is moving around more than ever! Lots of twitching, rolling around, and kicking. So far nothing uncomfortable at all.

Yesterday I ordered Sara Wickham's book "Anti-D in Midwifery: Panacea or Paradox?". I agonized about it because it's quite expensive. Apparently it is THE go-to book for Rh negative expectant mothers. Decisions surrounding my Rh status are very important and I don't just want to rely on internet research since there isn't a huge amount of information available on it. Yesterday when I asked Sari about delayed cord clamping she said that she generally doesn't rush to clamp, unless the mother is Rh negative. According to her research there could be danger to the baby as the placenta comes away from the uterine wall. I was alarmed at first but the more I think about it the more it doesn't make sense. It is I who would be sensitized by exposure to the baby's Rh+ blood, but my blood has no Rh factor in it so exposure to my blood wouldn't be dangerous to the baby unless I had already been sensitized and started to produce antibodies. At least that's the way I understand it. I've done some further internet research with Google Scholar and the study abstracts that I found which addressed Rh- mothers and delayed cord clamping showed that it is especially important to delay clamping with Rh- mothers because early clamping could actually cause infant and maternal blood to mix as blood "backs up" through the umbilical cord to the mother's bloodstream.

28 Weeks

This week your baby weighs about 2 ½ pounds and measures around 15 inches long. During the last four weeks the weight of your baby has nearly doubled. The baby is moving around a lot these days, but soon this will slow down as the baby starts to run out of room inside your uterus.

The smooth brain tissue continues to develop folds and wrinkles as it increases in mass. Brain functions include breathing and maintaining body temperature. Lanugo hair is starting to disappear over the body, but eyebrows, eyelashes and the hair on their head is growing. Bone marrow has taken over the production of red blood cells from the liver at this point. Muscle tone is improving and the baby’s body is filling out with warming body fat.

The third trimester is filled is aches and pains and general discomfort for many women. Some of the complaints you might suffer from include heartburn, varicose veins, hemorrhoids and indigestion. Knowing that you are closely approaching the birth of your baby can help you make it through these trying last few weeks.

Your health practitioner may order blood work at twenty-eight weeks and if you haven’t had a blood glucose screening done yet this may be done. Blood glucose screening helps determine if you have gestational diabetes.

Still feeling great! No complaints (except for this cold but I seem to be getting better). I went to the chiropractor for an adjustment yesterday and I'll go about 3 more times while I'm here- to make sure that my spine and pelvis are nicely aligned so this baby can just cruise on out when it's time. I also have a pregnancy massage booked for this afternoon, and I'll go again next week.

Wee3 has been moving a lot the last few days. Rolling around and twitching, mostly. I see limbs going by and poking out quite a bit. But nothing uncomfortable, and I'm grateful for that. Never wakes me up at night either. Mom got to feel some movements the other day.

I weighed myself yesterday at the chiropractor and according to that scale I have gained 25lbs! That must be why my belly is so big, because I don't really see it anywhere else. Or maybe I'm just fooling myself... ;)

27 Weeks

I'm quite late on this one! But here it is:

You’ve made it to the final trimester now, only 10 weeks to go! Your baby now weighs about 2 pounds and is about 14 inches long. They look like a fully formed baby at this point, only smaller and very thin. Survival, if born now, is around the 85% chance rate. Baby will go through another growth spurt now and may have predictable periods of sleep now.

The ears are covered the waxy substance called vernix which may muffle the sounds that they hear. Some experts believe that babies begin to dream at week 28, because the brain is so very active now. Brain tissue is developing rapidly.

It’s possible to hear the baby’s heartbeat by just placing an ear on your abdomen at this point! Lungs have developed enough that they could function outside of the womb and the central nervous system is well formed.

Amniotic fluid and the absence of fat on your baby’s body makes their skin appear wrinkly at this time. Baby will continue to fill out after they are born and begin to gain newborn weight.

The third trimester has begun!! Ten to 13 weeks doesn't sound all that far away: three full months definitely does. Especially looking down at this belly and wondering how it could possibly get bigger still.

I'm still feeling great. Did the ALS walk this morning and though I'm slow it felt good. By the end my hips and lower back were complaining a little, but not too much. I'm sleeping well. I feel fairly energetic.

Did some shopping here in Winnipeg because already most of my maternity tops don't reach my pants. Had to stock up on some longer tops. I don't remember "Homering" until maybe the last month with the other two. Ah well, it's my third baby, I suppose that's my excuse. Though when I meet with Abigail and Sari in a week or so to debrief about Eva and Micah's births I will ask if they can do a quick check to see if my size concerns them for any reason. I did a self fundal measurement the other day and came up about 3 cms big, which is on the outside edge of normal. But who knows if I was measuring properly either.

Baby is moving well and yesterday the kids got to see and feel it for the first time. Wee3 rolled over and Eva saw the movement of limbs under my skin. It was pretty cool. You should have seen how wide her eyes got, and how excited she was. Then both kids got a chance to feel some movement as well. My mom has been hoping to feel or see something too but the movements in her presence so far have been more furtive and random.

It's exciting to know that baby would have a very good chance at survival if born now. This little one is so close to ready to join us on the outside! (Not before your time, Wee, please!) I wonder what she looks like, or what kind of temperment he will have? What colour hair will she have? It's not unlikely that we could have a redhead! How big will he be? Such fun to wonder and I am enjoying the anticipation of finding out. I love this baby so much already. When we go for walks and the two kids run ahead, or when the kids are playing together, I often sketch in this third child in my mind's eye. It is beautiful. I am abundantly blessed!